McDonald's wrote a memo to the White House last week, which it handed to the Wall Street Journal, in which it threatened to stop providing health insurance to its McWorkers unless health reform is changed. (See the story here.) The hamburger chain complains that new HMO regulations are to blame. Why? The health insurance that its franchises now offer cap total benefits at $2,000 to $10,000 a year. And less than 80% of the premium dollars for the plan go toward health care. Under ObamaCare neither of those will fly.

McDonald's is cynically playing politics with its workers health. And it's hoping to make a point about the unintended consequences of ObamaCare. Yet it's also admitting, publicly, that the benefit it calls health insurance, which it offers its workers for $14 a week--is actually rubbish. I suppose it's not surprising that the purveyor of the 99 cent double cheeseburger is offering Yugo and not Cadillac benefits. Yet the products, as described in the memo by the Journal, sound particularly bad.

Insurance is supposed to protect you against catastrophic events. Cancer, having your house burn down, a car accident--all of these events make sense to insure against. What McDonald's is calling health insurance is really not. These plans max out at a given level. You got cancer? Tough luck, your insurance will pay no more than $2,000 toward chemo. So you, or more likely the government via Medicaid, will have to pick up the remaining $298,000.

McDonald's workers would be better off skipping the "insurance" and instead putting money into a Health Savings Account tax-free. Also note that McDonald's is admitting that its insurance carrier is keeping more than 20 cents of every dollar it collects. So the company is also unnecessarily enriching a middleman payer that adds no value. Bravo, Mickey D's!

Consider this. If you buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks rather than at McDonalds you'll pay more. But you'll also be supporting a company that provides its baristas with real benefits. Grab a 99 cent latte at McDonald's and you're supporting a company that makes its employees poorer and sicker and then complains about how the government is getting in the way.